Film Editors meet FWICE to highlight issues of under-remunerated and unbridled surrogate from projects
Film Editors meet FWICE to highlight issues of under-remunerated and
unbridled surrogate from projects
In their bid for an unbiased
working practices, leading film
editors approached the
Federation of Western India Cine Employees (FWICE) to focus on issues of under-remunerated and unbridled surrogate from projects and to hold meeting with streamers and producers
Earlier in May, as reported in a section of the media plans were afoot by the leading film editors to have a meeting the Association of Film and Video Editors (AFVE) to focus on the issues needling the community
Earlier this week, a group of over 10 Film editors – including Deepa Bhatia, Antara Lahiri and Jabeen Merchant – met the AFVE and the Federation of Western India Cine Employees (FWICE) in Andheri, to pursue their demand for fair working practices.
Their prime grievances are the uncomfortable working conditions, which include long working hours, lack of proper working spaces, and unreasonable deadlines set by producers and streamers.
According to Deepa Bhatia, Senior editor, credited with films like Hazaar Chaurasi Ki Maa, Taare Zameen Par, and Kedarnath,almost 300 from the community are demanding change.
Senior editors have been getting constant feedback from younger editors over having to work overnight, being denied credit, and uncomfortable working conditions.
She went on to add that all this has come to the fore, because we are all sharing our experiences.
Antara Lahiri, editor of Delhi Crime 2 who has worked on Delhi Crime 2 and the first season of Four More Shots Please, focuses a bigger issue. As per her, senior editors are substituted coercively sans a no-objection certificate (NOC) in place.
There are contracts with extremely rigid clauses, and a rampant practice of younger and even senior editors being replaced in an ad hoc manner without a proper NOC in place from the editor being replaced,” she laments. They also hope to negotiate a basic minimum wage in an industry where several production houses are infamous for giving insufficient remuneration.
Merchant, editor of Kiran Rao’s film Laapataa Ladies, says that some of the practices are systemic and that certain production houses are habitual offenders of paying below-par fees and treating editors in an indifferent manner.
Moreover, some platforms are repeatedly not following a proper system when changing editors. Some younger assistants have left town and even given up this profession under stress.
Antara Lahiri further added that
after hearing their complaints, FWICE decided to hold a meeting soon with producer bodies and streamers, including JioCinema, Netflix and Amazon Prime Video.
As per BM Tiwari, President, FWICE, the association has composed a letter based on the editors’ complaints and sent it to producer bodies and OTT platforms, Zee, Sony, Jio, Netflix and Amazon. They will also talk to four producer bodies, including Indian Motion Pictures Producers’ Association [IMPPA], Producers’ Guild of India, and Indian Film & Television Producers’ Council [IFTPC] over the issue.
The next step is to hold a meeting with producers, channels and streamers, and get the requirements raised by the editors passed.
There are many issues like lack of hygiene and unfair clauses that editors cannot approach any association and their communication will only be with the producers and ensured that FWICE will fight for the editors’ rights.
News Edit K.V.Raman
